A group of 9 investigators are requesting the acquisition of a "Multispectral Confocal Microscope and Image Analysis Facility" to extend the work of their 15 NIH grants. Their research programs are in highly targeted disease and injury related studies, including the underlying mechanisms of liver and lung cancer, central nervous system (CNS) trauma and disease, the genetic basis of brain development and disease, and immune system responses. An additional project is developing three- dimensional (3-D) image analysis and through this request that capability will be extended to the other projects. The microscope and image analysis systems will be housed in the Wadsworth Center's Light Microscopy and Image Analysis Core directed by the PI. The Core's staff will be responsible for instrument maintenance, and user support especially training, specimen preparation and image analysis. The staff has 34 man-years experience in light microscopy, 18 in confocal and three-dimensional (3-D) image analysis. To support and expand our research, it is essential to replace our aging confocal microscope and to add the capability of imaging multiple fluorescent tags. All projects will benefit from improved 3-D imaging provided by a confocal microscope with multispectral detection and separation of overlapping emissions. The correlation of multiple labels, 5 or more, in the same specimen volume in relatively thick specimens (up to 100 micrometers) will substantially improve our capability to understand the distribution of cellular and tissue level elements. To improve treatment of CNS degeneration and trauma as well as to understand the genetic basis of development and disease, we need improved imaging and analysis of multiple cells and tissue components in relation to each other. These capabilities are also essential to aid our understanding of the growth and metastasis of cancer cells as well as improved diagnostics, and the function of immune system cells especially with respect to phagocytosis and chemotaxis. Tissues under study include brain, spinal cord, lung, liver, and immune system. Relevance: The requested instrumentation will be operated as a shared facility for the investigators of this application and others, especially federally funded researchers in our institutions and across our region. Two projects have ongoing research programs to understand and diagnosis cancer of the liver and lung. The goal of one project is the rehabilitation of individuals with spinal cord injury, while another seeks to optimize the use of brain implants to restore function lost by trauma or disease. One project is unraveling the genetics of brain development and the incidence of disease. Two are studying the function of the immune system and how it responds to infectious challenges. The final project is developing better ways to analyze the three-dimensional images collected by the requested microscope by making advanced computer analysis available to all the microscope users. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]